Something so beautifully simplistic… Four Tet opened the year with a sonic ray of light, and assumed anomaly; There is Love in You was a calm catharsis and captured the most basic genuine human essence: love. Kieran Hebdan orchestrated an ode to the innate goodness of the individual, in the midst of a year where exorcisms reigned as the only means of expression – Hebdan brought humanity in the midst of the year of the monster.

Kanye West – “Power” – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

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Toast to the douchebags, toast to the assholes… Power is the ability to laud them, then let them burn – this is Kanye’s voyage, Westward bound, breaking bad in pursuit of the G.O.O.D.

Rick Ross came into his own this year, and brought more heat than Riley. In a year where Miami became the pop cultural capital, in more ways than one, Ross gave the city a sonic aesthetic, and the scene a soundtrack: hustle harmonized, faded neon strobes from the rear-view of a pitch black Lamborghini on South Beach, the heavy swelter, and the spectacular struggle – Teflon Don is bawse beats.

Janelle Monae – “Dance or Die” – The ArchAndroid

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“Some will pull the gun because they want to be stars; now I’m not saying it’s better to bailar, but you can pull the trigger or you can build you an ark.”

Recognized as an international music tastemaker by industry insiders
and musicians "in the know," Stone (aka Winston Ford) is the creator
of The Couch Sessions, the premier online destination for alternative
urban music and culture.